Phonics in Action

Thank you for coming to our Phonics In Action Workshop. We had nearly all parents attend and the children thoroughly enjoyed the

experience of sharing their learning and their environment with you. We hope that you took a lot away from the workshop and we

are pleased to hear such positive feedback. As promised, below we have attached the different phonics resources that were set up

inside and outside. If they are of benefit to you and your child - fantastic! We hope you continue to enjoy supporting your child with

phonics, reading and writing at home in a fun, active and creative way! At the end of this document are some useful links!

Thank you for completing the feedback forms – we have done our best to answer your questions from the feedback sheets below:

(Questions/queries taken straight from the feedback are in red.)

We wish the workshop was earlier in the year…

We will take this on board next year, however we also try our best to consider the weather and how many other school events

take place during the year. We try to find a balance in when we ask parents to give up their time to come into school.

For the summer holiday, what games or activities can we play?

The prompts from the workshop are attached below to remind you of the different activities and games that you can play over

the summer holidays. There are also some links to useful websites.

Are we supposed to correct the spelling of our child’s writing at this stage?

All children are taught to spell phonetically (this means writing down the sounds that they hear in the word).

Should you correct your child? - It depends on where your child is currently working. All children respond well to and learn from

the correct spelling being modeled. For example if they have spelt ‘turn’ as ‘tern’ we would explain to the children that the ‘er’

sound is greedy and can be written in different ways and in the word ‘turn’ it actually uses the ‘ur’ digraph. If your child writes a

story with several spelling mistakes we would not suggest correcting every single mistake you come across – since we expect

children to use their phonic knowledge when they are sounding out.

It is very normal for your child to spell incorrectly at this stage because they are listening for the sounds they know and have not

been taught all of the sounds or sound rules yet. More formal teaching of spellings begins in Year 1. In Reception we begin to

teach children how to accurately spell tricky words that are not spelt phonetically such as the, no, to, go, I, was, he, she etc.

You know your children best - any corrections should be made in a positive and light-hearted so as to encourage them to

continue to write.

Need to understand more about Phase 5 sounds…

Please see the ‘Letters and Sounds Phase 5’ handout that was given to you. This explains the sounds more clearly. Alternatively,

there will be a Phonics Workshop in Year 1 and during this workshop Phase 5 and beyond will be explained in greater depth.

It would be helpful to get a structured overview ahead of each term so we understand where activities fit in e.g. phase 2 – 5…

Although we explain the current sounds that we are focusing on each week in our Weekly Information Newsletters, we will take

this on board next year and give parents a list of the sounds for each phase. As is considered good practice, we plan our

teaching of each phase based on where the children are working at that given time and how well they have mastered each

phase. We cannot therefore tell you exactly when each sound will be taught, as each year is slightly different.

How do you teach words such as slimy, diving, living?

There are two parts to this answer:

There are 5 vowels in the alphabet (a,e,i,o,u). These vowels can either be short, which means the pure sound of that letter (e.g. a

for apple) or long, which means the alphabet name of that letter (e.g. A for Amy). The rest of the letters in the alphabet are called

consonants (e.g. f, d, p).

o Occasionally, words have to be sounded out incorrectly by children for them to realise that the way they thought the word

would sound doesn’t make sense. This is a very important skill for children to learn – we call it self-correcting.

o A child might read the word ‘slimy’ as ‘s, l, i, m, ee’ (using the short, pure sound i)– we would then hope that the child would

realise that this is not a real world. The child can then try sounding out the word again, using the long sound for i (igh) to read

‘slimy’ correctly.

‘y’ at the end of a word after a consonant can have two sounds – the alphabet name ‘I’ and ‘E’ (e.g. I - sky, cry and E - happy,

daddy).

o When the word ending in ‘y’ has only one syllable (e.g. shy) it is usually the ‘igh’ sound.

o When the word ending in ‘y’ has two syllables (e.g. puppy) it is usually the ‘ee’ sound.

o Just to recap – a syllable is a unit of speech, either a whole word or one of the parts into which a word can be separated. It

is helpful to clap the number of syllables in each word.

‘Day’ has 1 syllable.

‘Banker’ has 2 syllables.

‘Saturday’ has 3 syllables and so on.

More on the ‘magic e’…

The sounds that children have already learnt are introduced in an alternative way, for example the sound ‘ee’ can also be

written as ‘ea’. Often these sounds can also be written as a split digraph. Split digraphs are taught in Phase 5 such as a_e (ai),

o_e (oa), i_e (igh).

It is called a split digraph because the two letters are split by a consonant. For example, with the word ‘lake’ – the 'ae' make

one sound. The 'ae' digraph is split by the consonant 'k'.

We encourage children to spot a ‘magic e’ at the end of words. This is another way of helping children to spot split digraphs.

The e is ‘magic’ because it jumps over the consonant before it and changes the sound of the vowel in the middle of the word

from the short vowel sound to the alphabet name. E.g. in ‘lake’ the short ‘a’ sound changes to the letter name ‘A’.

An interesting spelling rule to learn about the ‘magic e’ is that if you add a suffix to the word, you either keep the ‘e’ or take it

away.

o If the suffix begins with a vowel then you usually take the ‘e’ away.

For example:

Bake – baking

Hope – hoping

o If the suffix begins with a consonant, you leave the ‘e’ where it is:

For example:

Wise – wisely

Hope-hopeless

Would be good to understand more about how writing is taught too…

Phonics teaches reading and writing. We teach children to start writing the sound correctly as they learn them and gradually

increase the amount of words we write (to support our growing bank of new sounds). It is important that we teach children how

to form letters correctly. Describing as we write can help with this. For example with the letter ‘m’, we might say ‘start at the top,

go all the way down to the line, back up and over, down to the line, back up and over and down’.

Before children write, they must be able to ‘segment’ the sounds they can hear in each word. For example in the word dog

there are three sounds: ‘d’ ‘o’ and ‘g’. You can count these sounds on your fingers.

When children write the word dog we encourage them to be independent – subtly supporting them as they write. For example,

if they have written ‘do’ and missed out the ‘g’ sound on the end we would read the word together that they have written and

encourage them to listen out for the final sound that they are missing. If you count the sounds needed in each word before

writing it, the child can check if they have the correct number of sounds after they have written the word.

Writing is supposed to be fun and meaningful – not sitting at home for 45 minutes writing pages and pages! We want all children

to see themselves as excellent writers and so we praise their efforts and encourage them to share their writing with others as

much as possible.

One thing to consider – when your child shows you a piece of their word, think carefully about your response. If you respond

with ‘good girl/boy’ or ‘you’re so clever’ you are praising the end result and encouraging children to think that they are a ‘good

child’ based on the finished product rather than believing that they can always grow. Instead, consider responding with ‘Wow,

I can see how hard you have tried to hear your sounds.’, ‘You have tried so hard to write your letters on the line.’, ‘What great

ideas.’, ‘That must have taken you a long time – well done for being persistent!’ Praising children’s efforts develops greater

confidence and self-belief and encourages children to think that they can always improve and grow.

Would be good to be taught the sounds ourselves…

What a great idea! We are in the process of creating a ‘Learning Hub’ on our school website. On this, we will include a video

of how to say each sound correctly.

My child reads the book sent home and I also read 2-4 books at bed time – I am unsure how to build more ‘phonics’ and sound

exercises at home due to tiredness…

Reading 4 books at bedtime may be a little lengthy if a child is tired! One storybook with plenty of discussion is great. Phonics

practice should only be a very short part of your home learning. It might be that you spend 5 minutes on your walk to school

sounding out different words. Alternatively, it might be that your child helps you write the shopping list or you could play a quick

game of ‘speedy sounds’ and see how quickly your child can say the sounds using their flashcards.

What about having the same workshop but for maths?

We will do our best to think carefully about how to offer further support for maths home learning!

Buried Treasure!

Select a word and read it.

Is the word real? Prove it by using it in a sentence. If it is real, put

the word in the treasure chest.

If the word is not real we call it an alien word. Put it in the alien

bin!

Extra challenge: once you have collected several real words in the treasure chest you

could have a ‘fire round’: see how many of them you can read in one minute!

These word coins can be made at home using paper/card (make them as challenging as you

wish!) If you don’t have an alien bin/treasure chest you could draw one and use that instead!

Welcome to Alien School

Blend

the

sounds…

Choose

3 cards…

What is

your alien

word?

In the Year 1 Phonics Screening Check, children will be

asked to decide if a word that they read is real or not.

BAM!

How many words can you read before the time runs out? (Count the

number of word cards after the timer has finished)

Can you beat your score from the

previous round?

This will help children to build speed with reading and therefore develop

fluency. This will also help with word recognition by sight.

Create a recipe for our mud kitchen!

3 scoops of water

5 spoons of mud

10 crusty leaves

a pinch of grass

I Spy!

Play with a friend: Select an object.

I spy with my little eye something beginning with….

Encourage a friend to guess the object you are thinking of.

Take it in turns.

Once you have guessed the word correctly, write down the name of

the object: listen carefully for all of the sounds (e.g.: sh-ee-p).

Make a list of the words: how many words have you guessed correctly?

Fishing For Sounds…

Use the fishing net to find a sound.

What sound have you found?

Can you think of a word with that sound in?

Can you think of a word that rhymes with your word?

Magic Potion Can you create your own magic potion?

Write a list of ingredients.

Think about using an adjective to describe each ingredient.

For example: slimy slugs, long worms, sharp claws from a crocodile

It is really important to teach our children to write for different, meaningful purposes. A range of

reasons to try at home:

A letter to the tooth fairy

Design your train track before you build it

Write a list of ingredients to go to the shops with

Create a recipe before making cupcakes

Design your own cereal box …..

Magnetic Letters

Use the magnetic letters to write the word underneath each

picture.

Use your robot arms to segment the

sounds you hear first, and then find the

letters you need.

Read the word to check it!

Match Read the sentence.

Find the picture to match.

Join them up. How many can you match?

Phoneme Frames! Choose a picture. Look at how many sounds are needed by

checking the phoneme frame.

Segment the sounds in the word on your fingers (e.g.: frog: f-

r-o-g).

Find the corresponding letter cubes to make the word. Read

your cubes to

check you

have spelt it

correctly.

Letter Printing

Use the sponges to print the letters…

Can you make a digraph or trigraph?

Can you create your own word?

Roll & Spell

er ur ir

Roll a dice to land on a

picture. Spell the word

on your whiteboard– use

the spelling clues in the

column to check the

sound you need to use.

This will help children to

learn spelling rules for

alternate sounds.

Roll & Spell

ai ay a_e

Roll a dice to land on a

picture. Spell the word on

your whiteboard– use the

spelling clues in the

column to check the

sound you need to use.

This will help children to

learn spelling rules for

alternate sounds.

Sound Jump!

Jump between the hoops and say the sounds as you land on

them.

How quickly can you think of a word with that sound in?

Story Writing

We should encourage children to believe that they are all

authors!

Story writing is a great way to build your child’s imagination and support them to organise their

thoughts and ideas.

All stories need one or more characters and a setting.

All stories could start with discussing a beginning, middle and an end. This is a great way of

encouraging children to break down the different sections.

Consider having a main event (for example: a character getting lost) and someone or

something to help solve the problem.

It is a good idea to use sentence openers such as: ‘One day’, ‘It was a bright sunny morning’,

‘Once upon a time’…

Don’t forget to add illustrations or cut out pictures to add to the story instead.

If you are finding it tricky to think of your own idea, re-writing and adapting pre-existing stories

is also fantastic! Think of the great traditional stories such as: The Three Billy Goats Gruff or

Goldilocks.

Most importantly, share your child’s story and encourage your child to read the story to you.

Tricky Rainbow Words! Find a word card. Read the word.

Use it verbally in a sentence.

Write the word once (forming letters

correctly).

Change your pen colour and write over it again.

Do this again until you have made a rainbow word!

Chalk & Water

Write/read the words using chalk.

Wash the words using the broom

and say them as you wash.

Alternatively, listen to your friend

say a word. Find the word and

quickly wash it away.

Welcome to Stamford Green Mechanics

You could create some signs to put up

around our outside area.

You could register customers and their

vehicles.

You could write down what is wrong with

the vehicle and then make a list of the

tools you need to repair it.

Purposeful writing is a great way to inspire your children. Some ideas:

Pirate treasure hunt

Open a café

Create a doctors surgery

Start a travel agents

Create you own dinosaur swamp – what do you need?

Hoop Throw

Use a recycled plastic bottle and fill it with

anything exciting – water, fairy liquid, glitter,

sequins, food colouring…

Stick some tricky words on the front of the

bottles.

Throw a hoop over the bottle and say the

word.

Challenge yourself to put the tricky word into a

sentence!

Here are the links to all of the Phase 2, 3 and 5 sound flashcards and a range of words that help

support the reading of those sounds. If you would like to use these when playing games with your

child they will need to be printed. It is up to you if you wish to laminate them.

This website is an excellent tool for finding out more about phonics. You can read detailed

information about all of the phases and how to support your child. http://www.letters-and-

sounds.com/

Phase 2 sound flashcards:

http://www.letters-and-sounds.com/resources/p2graph.pdf

Phase 3 sound flashcards:

http://www.letters-and-sounds.com/resources/p3graph.pdf

Phase 5 sound flashcards:

http://www.letters-and-sounds.com/resources/p5graph.pdf

Words to read (suitable for BAM game):

Phase 2: http://www.letters-and-sounds.com/resources/p2s3words.pdf

http://www.letters-and-sounds.com/resources/p2s5words.pdf

Phase 3: http://www.letters-and-sounds.com/resources/p3words.pdf

Phase 4: http://www.letters-and-sounds.com/resources/p4words.pdf

Phase 5: http://www.letters-and-sounds.com/resources/p5words.pdf

1:1 Reading – Questions and Prompts

What is the title?

Can you think of a different title this book could have?

Why do you think the author chose this title?

What is the setting (where and when the story happens)?

What adjectives can you use to describe the setting?

Does it remind you of any places you’ve been to?

Why do you think the author chose this setting?

Who are the characters in the story?

Which words can you use to describe the main character/s?

What sort of person is the character? How do you know?

Do you agree with the choices the character makes in the story? Why or why not? What would you have

done?

What is the story about?

What is happening here?

What does this word mean?

Describe in your own words what has happened so far in the story?

Is this what you expected/predicted to happen?

Can you retell part of the story from the point of view of another character?

Can you predict what the book will be about from the title or the cover illustration?

What do you think will happen next?

Can you find the index?

What does the index help you to do?

Find three facts about…

How does (character) feel when (something happens)? What word or clue tells you that (character) is

feeling that way?

Why do you think (character) did that?

What choice would you have made?

What do you think the author meant when he said…?

1:1 Reading – Questions and Prompts Part 2

How do you know (characters) are friends/ enemies?

Does this book have a blurb?

What does the blurb help you to do?

Why do you think the author chose to use this illustration?

How do the arrows, captions, labels in the diagram help you to understand better?

Is this story fiction or non-fiction? How do you know?

Why did the author choose to use a question on this page?

Why do you think the author chose the word…? Can you think of another word they could have used

instead?

How do we know the character is speaking?

Can you find any punctuation other than commas and full stops?

Can you find any feeling words?

Can you find any time connectives?

Who is your favourite character? Why?

Did you enjoy the story? Why?

Why did the author use similes?

Can you think of a different way to end the story? Which way is better? Why?

Does the story have a message or teach a lesson?

What other stories texts does this book remind you of?

Have you read anything else by this author? Or anything similar before?

If you could ask the author 3 questions about the book, what would you ask?

If you could be any of the characters, who would you be?

Would you recommend this book to your friends?

If you had designed the cover for the book, what would you have put on it?

Interactive websites:

https://www.phonicsplay.co.uk/freeIndex.htm

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/english-games/5-7-years/letters-and-sounds

https://www.phonicsbloom.com/

https://monsterphonics.com/games/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks1/literacy/phonics/play/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/shows/alphablocks

https://gb.education.com/games/phonological-awareness/

www.bbc.co.uk/learning

www.learningalive.co.uk

www.atschool.eduweb.co.uk/toftwood/recources.html

www.enchantedlearning.com

http://www.letters-and-sounds.com/

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